In present day office practice, it is quite common in order to conserve space and to avoid the costly provision of individual offices to locate a number of desks in an open area. Individual work areas may be defined by relatively temporary partitions which are sometimes even free standing. A problem confronted in such an arrangement of office space is the provision of electric power to individual desks without resorting to a multiplicity of conspicuous and obtrusive extension cords. Additionally, one may be confronted with the problem of supplying telephone facilities at such desks, and perhaps access to centrally located computing machinery or other devices intended to provide information along electrical wiring.
One present day solution to the problem of distributing electric power to such an office space is to provide a network of partitions which define individual work areas and which have hollow conduits (generally at the base thereof) which carry electrical supply lines. Electrical outlets are provided at intervals along the conduits to provide power to individual work areas. Such a solution presupposes that partitions are desired and desired at all locations where power might be required. Such a system also has the drawback that extension cords may still be required to make power available at a desk and that numerous other lines must be run in order to provide telephone facilities, data processing access or the like at various desks.
It is an object of the invention to provide a more convenient means for supplying such facilities to a work desk, and additionally to a multiplicity of desks located in an open work area.